The last decade can neatly be split down the middle, driver-wise. From 2000 to 2004, Michael Schumacher reigned supreme. From 2005 to 2009, the next generation of star drivers made their presence felt. All in all, it's a little unsatisfactory as an arrangement, as no one successor has helpfully pulled ahead of the rest of their rivals to fill the Michael-shaped void in the sport - for resolution to that issue we will, almost certainly, have to wait until the end of next decade. This is not to say that the field over the last 10 years hasn't provided us with a typically good mixture of brilliance, adequacy, unfulfilled promise and major new stars. Here's my top 10 drivers of the last ten years.
10. Rubens Barrichello (2000-2009)
172 starts, 530 points (@ 3.081). 11 wins, 12 pole positions, 17 fastest laps. Best championship: 2nd place (2002, 2004).
As the Ferrari number 2 during their most dominating era yet was when Rubens clocked up the majority of his numbers, but it was perhaps in the final years of the decade where he most impressed. First, in an uncompetitive Honda he never let his head drop and gave his all in spite of the odds. Then, as the team became Brawn and the class of the field, he put up his most spirited title challenge to date - all the more ironic, then, that his two 2nd-place championship finishes date from his time of being well-beaten by Michael Schumacher.
Highlight: His brilliant, elbows-out swashbuckling drive to victory in the 2003 British Grand Prix.
9. Juan Pablo Montoya (2001-2006)
94 starts, 309 points (@ 3.287). 7 wins, 13 pole positions, 13 fastest laps. Best championship: 3rd (2003)
Explosive and exciting, Montoya was there or thereabouts throughout his brief Formula 1 career. Winner of at least one race in every year bar 2002 and his final, disappointing half-season with McLaren, perhaps his greatest achievement was making the established names sit up and take notice of him right from the off. And but for a catastrophic race at Indianapolis in 2003, he could have been a world champion.
Highlight: Passing Michael Schumacher into the first corner at Interlagos in 2001, then leading the race like a veteran in only his third Grand Prix. It should have been the start of something huge.
8. David Coulthard (2000-2008)
156 starts, 314 points (@ 2.013). 7 wins, 4 pole positions, 7 fastest laps. Best championship: 2nd (2001).
He slid out of the sport rather anonymously at the end, but it should not be forgotten what a significant driver Coulthard was in the early part of this decade. A championship contender up until that perennial enemy - his own bad luck - reared its ugly head in 2000 and then runner up in 2001, Coulthard then went on to serve up perhaps his greatest ever Grand Prix win - holding off the field in an ailing McLaren at Monaco in 2002. The following season he won his final race in the sport and then in 2005 headed to Red Bull, where the results weren't as good but his experience was invaluable in the team's development. If he could have qualified as well as he raced, he could have been world champion.
Highlight: A brilliant win in the 2000 French Grand Prix, going wheel to wheel with Michael Schumacher and making the German look slow-witted.
7. Felipe Massa (2002, 2004-2009)
114 starts, 320 points (@ 2.807). 11 wins, 15 pole positions, 12 fastest laps. Best championship: 2nd (2008).
First there was wild and woolly Felipe, the man who wrestled his steering wheel and never brought his Sauber through a corner on the same line twice. Then came a formative year at Ferrari as a test driver. The man who returned managed to retain the same speed, but as the years went on learn to control it and turn it into results. By the time he arrived at Ferrari in 2006, he looked like he had everything he needed to fulfil his potential. Within 2 years, he had come as close to winning a world championship as you feasibly can, and looked set to go one better a lot more times until a chastening 2009. If he fully recovers from his accident, Massa could be one of the leading stars of the next decade.
Highlight: His two wins in the Brazilian Grand Prix, both drives of such speed and control you wondered how it was anyone else ever managed to win anything.
6. Sebastian Vettel (2007-2009)
43 starts, 125 points (@ 2.907). 5 wins, 5 pole positions, 3 fastest laps. Best championship: 2nd (2009).
An outstanding arrival on the scene, Vettel became the youngest ever Formula 1 points scorer on his debut at Indianapolis in 2007. Later moving to Toro Rosso, he led the Japanese Grand Prix in the streaming wet before crashing out of third. By way of compensation, the following week he finished 4th. A new star was being born. The following season came consistency and speed, including an improbable but dazzling win from the front in Monza. His move to Red Bull's senior team brought yet more success and a runners-up place in the standings. A multiple world champion, just waiting for his chance.
Highlight: Winning for Toro Rosso at Monza in 2008.
5. Jenson Button (2000-2009)
170 starts, 327 points (@ 1.924). 7 wins, 7 pole positions, 2 fastest laps. 2009 Formula 1 World Champion.
He arrived a relatively unheralded 20 year old at Williams in 2000 and impressed everyone. A future world champion, was the line. Well, he got there in the end. But if the fun in anything is in the journey rather than the arrival, Button will be enjoying his success more than most. A disappointing second season at Benetton had people questioning his motivation, an accusation which would repeatedly rear its ugly head whenever Button went through any kind of rough patch. However, when the car was underneath him he was always brilliant. His first podium in Formula 1 in 2004 was followed by 11 more that season, and after a trying start to 2006 Button outscored all his competitors in the second half of the year. The surprise of 2009 is not that Button is a world champion, but that it took so long for all the necessary factors to align.
Highlight: Winning the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix, having pulled the rabbit out of the hat at just the right moment throughout the weekend.
4. Lewis Hamilton (2007-2009)
52 races, 256 points (@ 4.923). 11 wins, 17 pole positions, 3 fastest laps. 2008 Formula 1 World Champion.
The decade's outstanding debutant. Hamilton arrived in 2007 as the GP2 champion, with a reputation for speed, aggression and resolve. He promptly finished on the podium for every one of his first 8 races, winning 2. Inexperience cost him a remarkable debut season title, but he was not to be denied in 2008, becoming the youngest man to ever win the world crown. His most impressive year of all, however, has been 2009. Battling against expectation and adversity in a very poor car, he and the team developed as the year went on, winning two races before the season was out. He could possibly be the most complete driver now in Formula 1.
Highlight: In a season where the field would normally be separated, front to back, by between 1 and 1.5 seconds, taking pole position in Abu Dhabi by 0.7 seconds, with more fuel onboard than the second-placed driver.
3. Kimi Räikkönen (2001-2009)
156 starts, 573 points (@ 3.673). 18 wins, 16 pole positions, 35 fastest laps. 2007 Formula 1 World Champion.
When he arrived in Formula 1, there were serious doubts as to whether Räikkönen, with only 24 single seater race starts to his name in Formula Renault, should have been granted a superlicence. Initially racing under a probationary period of 4 races, Kimi scored points in his first race and never looked back. By the following season he was at McLaren. Only inexperience, a tangle here, a mistake in qualifying there stopped him being world champion in 2003. But it was 2004 which was particularly impressive. In a brittle and unreliable car, Räikkönen's almost-certainly doomed gimlet-eyed pursuits of Michael Schumacher's immeasurably superior Ferrari were often the highlight of mid-season races. Second again in 2005, his move to Ferrari for 2007 immediately bore fruit. The last two seasons have been patchier, but as soon as he's written off, you can always rely on Kimi to produce something which makes you remember why he earns the salary he does.
Highlight: the final two races of his world championship campaign of 2007, where he came from 17 points behind by winning the Chinese and Brazilian Grands Prix takes some beating. But I'll pick his charge to victory from 17th at Suzuka in 2005.
2. Fernando Alonso (2001, 2003-2009)
139 starts, 577 points (@ 4.151). 21 wins, 18 pole positions, 13 fastest laps. 2005 and 2006 Formula 1 World Champion.
The only real rival to Schumacher to emerge during the German's reign in the sport, Alonso combines qualifying speed, great racecraft and consistency with Schumacher's greatest facet: the ability to read a race whilst in the cockpit. Seasons with an uncompetitive Renault team have seen Alonso's reputation take a little knock, but it's really the way he was kicked about by rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton at McLaren that hurt him, and which sets up the great duel for the beginning of the next decade in the sport. A truly great driver.
Highlight: after the questionable win in Singapore, the following weekend's success in Japan was classic Alonso, grasping an opportunity and never letting go.
1. Michael Schumacher (2000-2006)
121 starts, 799 points (@ 6.603). 56 wins, 45 pole positions, 37 fastest laps. 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 Formula 1 World Champion.
Michael Schumacher's total domination of Formula 1 at the start of the decade will stand as a benchmark for years to come. Indeed, only once in the history of the sport - Fangio's similar spell in the 1950s - has anything comparable been achieved. Yes, you can question some of his tactics, but hey, he got away with it. And yes, he had the best car. But that's immaterial, when you consider the work he put in with an uncompetitive Ferrari outfit for the previous 4 seasons to get into the position. Michael Schumacher may not be the greatest racing driver you or I will ever see, but he's very possibly the best.
Highlight: winning the 2003 Canadian Grand Prix in a car crippled by brake problems: one of Michael's few sleight of hand masterpieces in a decade where normally winning came easily.
- - -
And, just for the sake of balance, here's five who were never quite in contention:
5. Nelson Piquet Jr (2008-2009)
Aside from his sourpuss sad face and continual moping, aside from his part in the race fix in Singapore, Piquet just didn't cut it at this level. He's by no means the fifth worst driver of the decade as drivers go. But as a total package, you'd rather train a monkey.
4. Gaston Mazzacane (2000-2001)
Ah, the pay driver. Such a common sight in F1 during the late 80s and early 1990s, when there were hundreds of teams with names like brands of cough medicine, less prevalent in the noughties where the largest ever field was 22 cars. Mazzacane's cheque cleared, though, and he raced for Minardi and Prost in 2000 and 2001, which must have depressed both equally.
3. Alex Yoong (2001-2002)
The first Malaysian to ever start a Grand Prix, Alex Yoong was the last driver to fail to qualify for a Grand Prix on lack of pace alone. His time at Minardi can most charitably be summed up thus: he was pretty gentlemanly when it came to letting people through to lap him.
2. Luca Badoer (2009)
Just two races for the stalwart Ferrari test driver in the noughties, but two races which will live long in the memory. Qualifying last for both, he then raced through to last place. This made Ivan Capelli, still smarting from his own disastrous spell at the Scuderia in 1992, very happy no doubt.
1. Yuji Ide (2006)
The previous 4 drivers in this list really have nothing on this specimin, a pay driver who raced the first four events of the 2006 season for Super Aguri. Like Kimi Räikkönen, Ide's lack of experience was rewarded with a probationary period. Unlike the Finn, Ide spent much of the time lagging around at the back. After causing a number of nasty shunts at the San Marino Grand Prix, the FIA politely suggested that Ide go away somewhere else and get better at driving before he came back. We await this with baited breath.
Showing posts with label Noughties review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Noughties review. Show all posts
Friday, 13 November 2009
Formula 1 in the noughties, the races
The key fact when considering the relative quality of the actual on-track action in Formula 1 over the last decade is refuelling. For the first time in the sport, a whole ten year span featured mandatory pit stops for fuel, and the attendant strategic element became the fundamental factor in determining victory or defeat. However, if you race 20-odd 800 bhp cars against one another 174 times, you're always bound to throw up some memorable moments. Here's my choice of the finest ten Grand Prix races of the last ten years.
10. 2007 Japanese Grand Prix
Fuji Speedway, 30th September 2007. Winner: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4/22-Mercedes)
Perhaps the first great masterpiece of a burgeoning Formula 1 career, Lewis Hamilton won from pole at a streaming wet Fuji Speedway, and looked to have won the world title along with it. In only his 15th Grand Prix, he dominated proceedings in impossible conditions, whilst his teammate and key rival Fernando Alonso crashed in the spray. Coming through the mists, however, was a hugely significant cameo from Kimi Räikkönen in the Ferrari, keeping himself in mathematical contention for the title he would later snatch at the final race with some breathtakingly brave passes for position in dead reackoning conditions. Particularly memorable was his sweep round the outside of Heikki Kovalainen's Renault with his wheels millimetres from the grass and certain oblivion. This was also the race where Sebastian Vettel first nailed his colours to the mast and made everyone take notice, running a strong third (and becoming the youngest ever leader of a Formula 1 race to boot) in the Toro Rosso, before embarassingly hitting Mark Webber's Red Bull during a safety car period.
9. 2000 Japanese Grand Prix
Suzuka, 8th October 2000. Winner: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari F1-2000)
The last great summit duel between Michael Schumacher and his greatest rival, Mika Häkkinen took place at a dingy Suzuka with the world championship title waiting in the wings. Schumacher needed to beat the Finn to secure Ferrari's first triumph in 21 years. However, as he so often did, he made a poor start and it was Mika who made the early running, Michael chasing him down. Häkkinen was eventually undone by traffic and a brief rain shower at a critical time, during the second pit stop window. Schumacher, always with the edge over his rival in reduced-grip conditions, got the job done. What made this race stand out for me, though, was the sheer quality of the driving on display. The two finest practitioners of the sport at the time, head-to-head and leaving everyone else in no doubt that they were nowhere. The third place man - apparently David Coulthard but realistically, it could have been anyone - finished 69 seconds behind at the flag. You could easily believe that there were no other cars on the circuit. The irony of this result, with hindsight, is that after such a finely-balanced tussle, Schumacher won the world crown that he would not relinquish again for a shade under five years.
8. 2008 Italian Grand Prix
Monza, 14th September 2008. Winner: Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso STR3-Ferrari)
Wet races at Monza are as rare as hen's teeth, so 2008 was a rare treat. However, what it produced was easily the most unlikely result on the entire decade, as Sebastian Vettel took his Toro Rosso (née Minardi) car from an unlikely pole position to a magnificently controlled win. Nobody else was ever really in contention, in spite of the title's destination still being very much in the balance between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa at the time. The racing down the field was as entertaining as one has come to expect in wet conditions, but the man at the front was serene. There's every chance that, come the end of the next decade, we'll look back at this race and see that it wasn't all that surprising after all. At the time, though, Vettel became the youngest ever man to win a Grand Prix and it was a brilliantly refreshing sight.
7. 2008 British Grand Prix
Silverstone, 6th July 2008. Winner: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4/23-Mercedes)
Another streaming wet day, another Lewis Hamilton masterclass. As chaos reigned throughout the field in impassable conditions - notably Felipe Massa, who spun no fewer than five times - Hamilton stroked it home in a diabolical British summer rainstorm. Starting from fourth on the grid, he made his superiority clear from the lights, blasting past the cars ahead with ease, literally sideswiping his teammate (and polesitter) Heikki Kovalainen out of the way at Stowe. At one point, his team radio broadcast pleaded with him to slow down and not risk his place. His reply, at a time when he was lapping 1, 2, 3 seconds per lap faster than anyone else, was that he didn't see HOW he could go any slower without stopping. It's times like this which are indicative of genius. Hamilton went on to win by 68 seconds. As for the rest, the star was Rubens Barrichello. The 2008 Honda RA108 was a tractor of a car, but Barrichello in the wet is a force to be reckoned with, quite the equal of anyone in the field. He nailed car after car to finish a well-deserved 3rd, which went on to account for a large proportion of the Japanese team's points total come the end of their final season.
6. 2007 European Grand Prix
Nürburgring, 22nd July 2007. Winner: Fernando Alonso (McLaren MP4/22-Mercedes)
This was a race that had it all. Starting in the dry, within the first few laps the Eiffel Mountains produced a rainstorm of Biblical proportions, sending half the field spinning off the track, particularly at the first corner, which was literally flooded. The restarted race took its grid order from a few laps before and saw Markus Winkelhock's Spyker, the German in his first and so far only Grand Prix, on pole position after a gamble from the team to start him on wet tyres. Surprises out of the way, the field then moved onto standard levels of excitement for a wet race. However, this event was set apart from others by its thrilling finale, with Fernando Alonso tracking down and passing the long-time leader, Felipe Massa in the Ferrari, with just 4 laps remaining.
5. 2005 San Marino Grand Prix
Imola, 24th April 2005. Winner: Fernando Alonso (Renault R25)
After 5 years of Ferrari domination, it was the Renault team who hit the ground running at the start of the 2005 season. By the fourth round, it was fairly clear that Alonso would be the man to beat. Ferrari hurried their new car through and gave it a decent debut in Bahrain, Michael Schumacher running second before his brakes overheated. At Imola, however, he was nothing short of inspired. After qualifying only 13th, he spent much of the early running stuck behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota. Taking advantage of an early pit stop and his Bridgestone tyres, superior on the day in a season where mid-race tyre stops were banned, Schumacher came alive, setting lap after lap faster than anyone else on the track. After the second fuel stops, he was right with Alonso, who had led comfortably after early leader Kimi Räikkönen's driveshaft failed with the Finn in a commanding position. What followed was thrilling stuff, Schumacher climbing all over the back of Alonso but unable to find a way past. It was an epochal moment in Grand Prix racing. If you ever needed to know the point that the baton was passed to the new generation of drivers, this was it.
4. 2000 Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps, 27th August 2000. Winner: Mika Häkkinen (McLaren MP4/15-Mercedes)
Ferrari had made all the early running in 2000, but a spell of first lap accidents for Michael Schumacher helped Mika Häkkinen, back at the top of his game from mid-season, close the points gap. By the time they arrived at Spa, the Finn was now leading by 2 points. What followed, on a typical wet-dry day in Belgium, is perhaps the most famous wheel-to-wheel dice of the decade. An inspired Häkkinen - who, on his day even had the measure of his rival in wet conditions - led the early running. As the track dried, his advantage grew: Häkkinen had gambled on a dry weather set-up for his car, making him demonstrably quicker in a straight line than Michael Schumacher's compromise set-up Ferrari. However, Häkkinen then spun at Stavelot, allowing Schumacher to breeze past into a commanding lead. The Finn's comeback drive was spectacular. With a handful of laps remaining, he was back with Schumacher, who had been warned by radio that his opponent was dramatically fast in a straight line. Häkkinen's first attempt at the lead saw Schumacher try push his rival onto the grass at 200 mph, which did nothing to dampen the now furious Häkkinen's resolve. The following lap, the two happened upon Ricardo Zonta's BAR Honda at the end of the main straight, with Mika slipping inside the Brazilian to pass the backmarker and the Ferrari in one manouevre. Probably the greatest pass of the noughties, Häkkinen further enhanced his reputation by refusing to be drawn into a public spat about Schumacher's on-track ethics after the race.
3. 2003 British Grand Prix
Silverstone, 20th July 2003. Winner: Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari F2003-GA)
Rubens Barrichello has made quite a career of winning races interrupted by on-track invaders. At Silverstone in 2003, it was noted British lunatic Neil Horan who enlivened proceedings, running towards oncoming traffic on the Hangar Straight, seemingly dressed as C.U. Jimmy. The race put behind the safety car at a critical stage, the order was well and truly shaken up as early pit stoppers now took the advantage. In all the chaos, the one constant was Rubens Barrichello, racing and passing car after car in thrilling yet utterly decisive moves. The British crowd, deeply appreciative of his efforts after a superbly entertaining race from all of the field, greeted the winner with the sort of cheer normally reserved for Nigel Mansell. An epic performance on a day of fine driving.
2. 2005 Japanese Grand Prix
Suzuka, 9th October 2005. Winner: Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren MP4/20-Mercedes)
Uniquely for this list, the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix was a dead rubber, the championship title having been won in Brazil 2 weeks earlier. The race in Suzuka, however, was sensational. The story began on Saturday, as rain showers interrupted qualifying and completely scrambled the usual grid order. Title protagonists Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen duly lined up in 16th and 17th places on a dry and sunny Sunday. On a day where the entire field battled royally to get their 'rightful' positions back, it was these two who really made the running. Alonso's pass around the outside of Michael Schumacher into 130R has gone into legend, but the real story was Räikkönen, stalking down car after car with relentless energy. Eventually he caught up with Giancarlo Fisichella, who had missed the worst of the Saturday weather and qualified 3rd, looking set fair for a race win. Räikkönen barely even blinked, blasting past the Renault into the first turn of the final lap to take his last win for the team. A mad, thrilling and, most of all, inspirationally skillful day of motor racing.
1. 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
Interlagos, 2nd November 2008. Winner: Felipe Massa (Ferrari F2008)
Final race title deciders were not a rarity in the noughties. Nor were excellent Brazilian Grands Prix: I could easily have included the 2001, 2003, 2007 or 2009 events in this list. However, this race was special. Having arrived in São Paulo in 2007 leading by 7 points only to leave with nothing, Lewis Hamilton must have been mindful that here he was again, in Brazil for the final race, leading by 7 points. This time, his rival was Felipe Massa, on home ground and in pole position. Massa blasted off into a lead he would barely ever cede, with Hamilton being rather more circumspect, on a damp track and with it all to lose all over again. The following 95 minutes were breathlessly tense stuff, as up and down the field battles raged and the weather lurched from damp to dry and to wet again. Late on, the rain grew heavier, and McLaren had no choice but to pit Hamilton - just about holding on to the 5th place he needed to be champion - for wet tyres. On the penultimate lap, though, he was passed into 6th by Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso, and that familiar sinking feeling must have struck him as much as it did for millions of his fans back at home watching the race at tea time. Of course, the race had a barely believable twist - one which was even called into question by conspiracy-minded types after the event. McLaren knew that Timo Glock's Toyota was still on dry tyres and floundering, lapping almost 20 seconds slower than his best in the downpour. The team could see that Hamilton was just about due to catch and pass him on the final lap. As he did so, at the last corner, Felipe Massa had just passed the finish line, his win as fine a drive as you could ever hope to see in such testing conditions and under such monumental pressure. For about 15 seconds, he was the Formula 1 World Champion, before Hamilton came through in the required 5th, a deceptively comfortable 6 seconds clear of Glock's car.
Before this year's race, I watched a 10 minutes highlights package of the event on the BBC website. To that day it still made my heart race, my stomach knot and my mind boggle. And even though I knew what would happen, it was still almost unbelievable when it happened. The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix is the most exciting motor race I have ever seen. I hope one day I will see one better. If I don't, however, I can't really complain.
Rogue's Gallery
For every great race, there are several dreary ones. We need the dreary ones. They make great things more special. However, the following five were beyond that. Soporiphic or just plan offensive, these are my top five worst races of the noughties:
5. 2008 Singapore Grand Prix
At the time it seemed a fairly standard race, not much on the track but enough novelty to make it interesting, plus an unexpected win for Fernando Alonso's Renault. Of course, now we know...
4. 2002 United States Grand Prix
Formula 1 seemed to have finally found a venue worthy of trying that hardest of all sells: Formula 1 to the American mass market. It promptly pissed very much on its own chips, just 3 events into its run at Indy. Ferrari, dominant all year, attempted this cod-brained attempt at a staged finish which saw Rubens Barrichello just pip Michael Schumacher (the mastermind of the scheme) by 0.011 seconds, tragically now in the history books as the narrowest margin in Grand Prix history. Trying to engineer a dead heat? Trying to make amends for Austria (see 2.)? What a bloody mess.
3. 2000-2009 Spanish Grands Prix
A bold choice, perhaps. But almost without fail, the Circuito de Catalunya produces the most dismally boring race of the entire year. It is speculated that this is due to its ubiquity as a test track. However, year on year, the cars line up two-by-two in order of aerodynamic efficiency and then trail around for hours on end, unable to pass. Fernando Alonso enlivened the 2003, 2005 and 2006 events a little, but not enough to make me relish the prospect of another race in Barcelona.
2. 2002 Austrian Grand Prix
The season before, Rubens Barrichello had been "asked" to let his teammate by into 2nd place "for the championship". This stuck in many people's craw, as round 6 of 17 is a little too early for such considerations. The following year, however, they trumped this magnificently, instructing Rubens to move over from a lead he had comfortably held from the start. I'm not one of these people who don't understand the sport and its history. I know the role of team orders and number 2 drivers. However, this, again at round 6, is one of the most offensive sporting spectacles I've ever witnessed.
1. 2005 United States Grand Prix
This 6 car extravaganza, caused by a mass pull-out by all the Michelin teams after the French company brought too soft a tyre to Indianapolis, creating a safety hazard, was sad beyond words. The political rumblings around, with all the teams unable to sort out any compromise in order to save the race, gave a very real indication as to why Formula 1 keeps on failing in North America. It's too busy shooting itself in the foot.
10. 2007 Japanese Grand Prix
Fuji Speedway, 30th September 2007. Winner: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4/22-Mercedes)
Perhaps the first great masterpiece of a burgeoning Formula 1 career, Lewis Hamilton won from pole at a streaming wet Fuji Speedway, and looked to have won the world title along with it. In only his 15th Grand Prix, he dominated proceedings in impossible conditions, whilst his teammate and key rival Fernando Alonso crashed in the spray. Coming through the mists, however, was a hugely significant cameo from Kimi Räikkönen in the Ferrari, keeping himself in mathematical contention for the title he would later snatch at the final race with some breathtakingly brave passes for position in dead reackoning conditions. Particularly memorable was his sweep round the outside of Heikki Kovalainen's Renault with his wheels millimetres from the grass and certain oblivion. This was also the race where Sebastian Vettel first nailed his colours to the mast and made everyone take notice, running a strong third (and becoming the youngest ever leader of a Formula 1 race to boot) in the Toro Rosso, before embarassingly hitting Mark Webber's Red Bull during a safety car period.
9. 2000 Japanese Grand Prix
Suzuka, 8th October 2000. Winner: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari F1-2000)
The last great summit duel between Michael Schumacher and his greatest rival, Mika Häkkinen took place at a dingy Suzuka with the world championship title waiting in the wings. Schumacher needed to beat the Finn to secure Ferrari's first triumph in 21 years. However, as he so often did, he made a poor start and it was Mika who made the early running, Michael chasing him down. Häkkinen was eventually undone by traffic and a brief rain shower at a critical time, during the second pit stop window. Schumacher, always with the edge over his rival in reduced-grip conditions, got the job done. What made this race stand out for me, though, was the sheer quality of the driving on display. The two finest practitioners of the sport at the time, head-to-head and leaving everyone else in no doubt that they were nowhere. The third place man - apparently David Coulthard but realistically, it could have been anyone - finished 69 seconds behind at the flag. You could easily believe that there were no other cars on the circuit. The irony of this result, with hindsight, is that after such a finely-balanced tussle, Schumacher won the world crown that he would not relinquish again for a shade under five years.
8. 2008 Italian Grand Prix
Monza, 14th September 2008. Winner: Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso STR3-Ferrari)
Wet races at Monza are as rare as hen's teeth, so 2008 was a rare treat. However, what it produced was easily the most unlikely result on the entire decade, as Sebastian Vettel took his Toro Rosso (née Minardi) car from an unlikely pole position to a magnificently controlled win. Nobody else was ever really in contention, in spite of the title's destination still being very much in the balance between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa at the time. The racing down the field was as entertaining as one has come to expect in wet conditions, but the man at the front was serene. There's every chance that, come the end of the next decade, we'll look back at this race and see that it wasn't all that surprising after all. At the time, though, Vettel became the youngest ever man to win a Grand Prix and it was a brilliantly refreshing sight.
7. 2008 British Grand Prix
Silverstone, 6th July 2008. Winner: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4/23-Mercedes)
Another streaming wet day, another Lewis Hamilton masterclass. As chaos reigned throughout the field in impassable conditions - notably Felipe Massa, who spun no fewer than five times - Hamilton stroked it home in a diabolical British summer rainstorm. Starting from fourth on the grid, he made his superiority clear from the lights, blasting past the cars ahead with ease, literally sideswiping his teammate (and polesitter) Heikki Kovalainen out of the way at Stowe. At one point, his team radio broadcast pleaded with him to slow down and not risk his place. His reply, at a time when he was lapping 1, 2, 3 seconds per lap faster than anyone else, was that he didn't see HOW he could go any slower without stopping. It's times like this which are indicative of genius. Hamilton went on to win by 68 seconds. As for the rest, the star was Rubens Barrichello. The 2008 Honda RA108 was a tractor of a car, but Barrichello in the wet is a force to be reckoned with, quite the equal of anyone in the field. He nailed car after car to finish a well-deserved 3rd, which went on to account for a large proportion of the Japanese team's points total come the end of their final season.
6. 2007 European Grand Prix
Nürburgring, 22nd July 2007. Winner: Fernando Alonso (McLaren MP4/22-Mercedes)
This was a race that had it all. Starting in the dry, within the first few laps the Eiffel Mountains produced a rainstorm of Biblical proportions, sending half the field spinning off the track, particularly at the first corner, which was literally flooded. The restarted race took its grid order from a few laps before and saw Markus Winkelhock's Spyker, the German in his first and so far only Grand Prix, on pole position after a gamble from the team to start him on wet tyres. Surprises out of the way, the field then moved onto standard levels of excitement for a wet race. However, this event was set apart from others by its thrilling finale, with Fernando Alonso tracking down and passing the long-time leader, Felipe Massa in the Ferrari, with just 4 laps remaining.
5. 2005 San Marino Grand Prix
Imola, 24th April 2005. Winner: Fernando Alonso (Renault R25)
After 5 years of Ferrari domination, it was the Renault team who hit the ground running at the start of the 2005 season. By the fourth round, it was fairly clear that Alonso would be the man to beat. Ferrari hurried their new car through and gave it a decent debut in Bahrain, Michael Schumacher running second before his brakes overheated. At Imola, however, he was nothing short of inspired. After qualifying only 13th, he spent much of the early running stuck behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota. Taking advantage of an early pit stop and his Bridgestone tyres, superior on the day in a season where mid-race tyre stops were banned, Schumacher came alive, setting lap after lap faster than anyone else on the track. After the second fuel stops, he was right with Alonso, who had led comfortably after early leader Kimi Räikkönen's driveshaft failed with the Finn in a commanding position. What followed was thrilling stuff, Schumacher climbing all over the back of Alonso but unable to find a way past. It was an epochal moment in Grand Prix racing. If you ever needed to know the point that the baton was passed to the new generation of drivers, this was it.
4. 2000 Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps, 27th August 2000. Winner: Mika Häkkinen (McLaren MP4/15-Mercedes)
Ferrari had made all the early running in 2000, but a spell of first lap accidents for Michael Schumacher helped Mika Häkkinen, back at the top of his game from mid-season, close the points gap. By the time they arrived at Spa, the Finn was now leading by 2 points. What followed, on a typical wet-dry day in Belgium, is perhaps the most famous wheel-to-wheel dice of the decade. An inspired Häkkinen - who, on his day even had the measure of his rival in wet conditions - led the early running. As the track dried, his advantage grew: Häkkinen had gambled on a dry weather set-up for his car, making him demonstrably quicker in a straight line than Michael Schumacher's compromise set-up Ferrari. However, Häkkinen then spun at Stavelot, allowing Schumacher to breeze past into a commanding lead. The Finn's comeback drive was spectacular. With a handful of laps remaining, he was back with Schumacher, who had been warned by radio that his opponent was dramatically fast in a straight line. Häkkinen's first attempt at the lead saw Schumacher try push his rival onto the grass at 200 mph, which did nothing to dampen the now furious Häkkinen's resolve. The following lap, the two happened upon Ricardo Zonta's BAR Honda at the end of the main straight, with Mika slipping inside the Brazilian to pass the backmarker and the Ferrari in one manouevre. Probably the greatest pass of the noughties, Häkkinen further enhanced his reputation by refusing to be drawn into a public spat about Schumacher's on-track ethics after the race.
3. 2003 British Grand Prix
Silverstone, 20th July 2003. Winner: Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari F2003-GA)
Rubens Barrichello has made quite a career of winning races interrupted by on-track invaders. At Silverstone in 2003, it was noted British lunatic Neil Horan who enlivened proceedings, running towards oncoming traffic on the Hangar Straight, seemingly dressed as C.U. Jimmy. The race put behind the safety car at a critical stage, the order was well and truly shaken up as early pit stoppers now took the advantage. In all the chaos, the one constant was Rubens Barrichello, racing and passing car after car in thrilling yet utterly decisive moves. The British crowd, deeply appreciative of his efforts after a superbly entertaining race from all of the field, greeted the winner with the sort of cheer normally reserved for Nigel Mansell. An epic performance on a day of fine driving.
2. 2005 Japanese Grand Prix
Suzuka, 9th October 2005. Winner: Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren MP4/20-Mercedes)
Uniquely for this list, the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix was a dead rubber, the championship title having been won in Brazil 2 weeks earlier. The race in Suzuka, however, was sensational. The story began on Saturday, as rain showers interrupted qualifying and completely scrambled the usual grid order. Title protagonists Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen duly lined up in 16th and 17th places on a dry and sunny Sunday. On a day where the entire field battled royally to get their 'rightful' positions back, it was these two who really made the running. Alonso's pass around the outside of Michael Schumacher into 130R has gone into legend, but the real story was Räikkönen, stalking down car after car with relentless energy. Eventually he caught up with Giancarlo Fisichella, who had missed the worst of the Saturday weather and qualified 3rd, looking set fair for a race win. Räikkönen barely even blinked, blasting past the Renault into the first turn of the final lap to take his last win for the team. A mad, thrilling and, most of all, inspirationally skillful day of motor racing.
1. 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
Interlagos, 2nd November 2008. Winner: Felipe Massa (Ferrari F2008)
Final race title deciders were not a rarity in the noughties. Nor were excellent Brazilian Grands Prix: I could easily have included the 2001, 2003, 2007 or 2009 events in this list. However, this race was special. Having arrived in São Paulo in 2007 leading by 7 points only to leave with nothing, Lewis Hamilton must have been mindful that here he was again, in Brazil for the final race, leading by 7 points. This time, his rival was Felipe Massa, on home ground and in pole position. Massa blasted off into a lead he would barely ever cede, with Hamilton being rather more circumspect, on a damp track and with it all to lose all over again. The following 95 minutes were breathlessly tense stuff, as up and down the field battles raged and the weather lurched from damp to dry and to wet again. Late on, the rain grew heavier, and McLaren had no choice but to pit Hamilton - just about holding on to the 5th place he needed to be champion - for wet tyres. On the penultimate lap, though, he was passed into 6th by Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso, and that familiar sinking feeling must have struck him as much as it did for millions of his fans back at home watching the race at tea time. Of course, the race had a barely believable twist - one which was even called into question by conspiracy-minded types after the event. McLaren knew that Timo Glock's Toyota was still on dry tyres and floundering, lapping almost 20 seconds slower than his best in the downpour. The team could see that Hamilton was just about due to catch and pass him on the final lap. As he did so, at the last corner, Felipe Massa had just passed the finish line, his win as fine a drive as you could ever hope to see in such testing conditions and under such monumental pressure. For about 15 seconds, he was the Formula 1 World Champion, before Hamilton came through in the required 5th, a deceptively comfortable 6 seconds clear of Glock's car.
Before this year's race, I watched a 10 minutes highlights package of the event on the BBC website. To that day it still made my heart race, my stomach knot and my mind boggle. And even though I knew what would happen, it was still almost unbelievable when it happened. The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix is the most exciting motor race I have ever seen. I hope one day I will see one better. If I don't, however, I can't really complain.
Rogue's Gallery
For every great race, there are several dreary ones. We need the dreary ones. They make great things more special. However, the following five were beyond that. Soporiphic or just plan offensive, these are my top five worst races of the noughties:
5. 2008 Singapore Grand Prix
At the time it seemed a fairly standard race, not much on the track but enough novelty to make it interesting, plus an unexpected win for Fernando Alonso's Renault. Of course, now we know...
4. 2002 United States Grand Prix
Formula 1 seemed to have finally found a venue worthy of trying that hardest of all sells: Formula 1 to the American mass market. It promptly pissed very much on its own chips, just 3 events into its run at Indy. Ferrari, dominant all year, attempted this cod-brained attempt at a staged finish which saw Rubens Barrichello just pip Michael Schumacher (the mastermind of the scheme) by 0.011 seconds, tragically now in the history books as the narrowest margin in Grand Prix history. Trying to engineer a dead heat? Trying to make amends for Austria (see 2.)? What a bloody mess.
3. 2000-2009 Spanish Grands Prix
A bold choice, perhaps. But almost without fail, the Circuito de Catalunya produces the most dismally boring race of the entire year. It is speculated that this is due to its ubiquity as a test track. However, year on year, the cars line up two-by-two in order of aerodynamic efficiency and then trail around for hours on end, unable to pass. Fernando Alonso enlivened the 2003, 2005 and 2006 events a little, but not enough to make me relish the prospect of another race in Barcelona.
2. 2002 Austrian Grand Prix
The season before, Rubens Barrichello had been "asked" to let his teammate by into 2nd place "for the championship". This stuck in many people's craw, as round 6 of 17 is a little too early for such considerations. The following year, however, they trumped this magnificently, instructing Rubens to move over from a lead he had comfortably held from the start. I'm not one of these people who don't understand the sport and its history. I know the role of team orders and number 2 drivers. However, this, again at round 6, is one of the most offensive sporting spectacles I've ever witnessed.
1. 2005 United States Grand Prix
This 6 car extravaganza, caused by a mass pull-out by all the Michelin teams after the French company brought too soft a tyre to Indianapolis, creating a safety hazard, was sad beyond words. The political rumblings around, with all the teams unable to sort out any compromise in order to save the race, gave a very real indication as to why Formula 1 keeps on failing in North America. It's too busy shooting itself in the foot.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Formula 1 in the noughties, the numbers
Thanks, no doubt, to the thought-numbing and explosive celebrations witnessed nearly ten years ago to mark the change of Millennium, you would perhaps be forgiven for not even having registered the fact that we are now only about 50 days away from the end of the decade. Decades used to be a big deal. Even to this day, 'sixites', 'seventies' or 'eighties' are banded about as terms of social, political or historical shorthand.
Perhaps the real issue is the name: "the noughties", being the best description of our current era, is still fairly lumpen. I daren't think what the next decade will come to be called, though I fear "The Teenies" is imminent as a widely acknowledged term in the English language.
However twee or ridiculous the nomenclature, though, I'm still a big fan of the decade. They are fabulously useful for the general observations of social progress, of developments, and sometimes, of regressions. Over the next few days, +1 Lap will be looking at what the previous ten years has done for, and what it will be remembered for, in the Formula 1 World Championship. We will start today with the collated raw statistics from the period, before hopefully getting a little more loquacious later this week with a look at my choices of the top ten drivers and top ten races, as well as some broader trends. But hey, enough of my yakking. What d'ya say... let's boogie.
F1 2000-2009
The FIA Formula One World Championship in the last decade was contested on 24 circuits in 20 countries. It was comprised of 174 Grands Prix. 71 drivers competed for the ten available world titles, with five men winning the crown and an additional 12 winning Grands Prix. 48 of the 71 drivers scored championship points. In the Constructors' Cup, 22 teams competed for the ten titles. Ferrari dominated with seven championship wins, Renault (twice) and Brawn GP taking the remainder.
Formula 1 World Champions 2000-2009
It was Schumacher's decade. Before 2000, five represented the high watermark in World Championship titles. Afterwards, it has become the record for most consecutive successes.
Michael Schumacher 5 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 & 2004)
Fernando Alonso 2 (2005 & 2006)
Jenson Button 1 (2009)
Lewis Hamilton 1 (2008)
Kimi Räikkönen 1 (2007)
Grand Prix winning drivers 2000-2009
In spite of his retirement at the end of 2006, no-one could get near Michael Schumacher's record in the past ten seasons. Indeed, his 56 wins (out of a total of 91) represent five more than the next-highest career total in the all-time list.
Michael Schumacher 56
Fernando Alonso 21
Kimi Räikkönen 18
Rubens Barrichello 11
Lewis Hamilton 11
Felipe Massa 11
Jenson Button 7
David Coulthard 7
Juan Pablo Montoya 7
Mika Häkkinen 6
Ralf Schumacher 6
Sebastian Vettel 5
Giancarlo Fisichella 3
Mark Webber 2
Heikki Kovalainen 1
Robert Kubica 1
Jarno Trulli 1
Grand Prix winning drivers' nationalities 2000-2009
Unsurprisingly enough, Germany lead the way on the back of Michael Schumacher's domination. However, two other countries provided three different winners. Brazil is the most successful country to have not produced a Formula 1 world champion in the past decade.
Germany 67 (3 drivers @ 22.33 wins apiece)
Finland 25 (3 drivers @ 8.33)
United Kingdom 25 (3 drivers @ 8.33)
Brazil 22 (2 drivers @ 11.00)
Spain 21 (1 driver @ 21.00)
Colombia 7 (1 driver @ 7.00)
Italy 4 (2 drivers @ 2.00)
Australia 2 (1 driver @ 2.00)
Poland 1 (1 driver @ 1.00)
Pole position winning drivers 2000-2009
Although he was never the most natural qualifier - Schumacher did not take a single Formula 1 pole until the race after the death of Ayrton Senna - in the best car he was completely devastating. Indeed, in the end his sheer longevity saw him overhaul Senna's record number of poles in his last Grand Prix season. The heir to his crown would appear to be Lewis Hamilton, who racked up the third-highest total in many fewer races than any of his rivals.
Michael Schumacher 45
Fernando Alonso 18
Lewis Hamilton 17
Kimi Räikkönen 16
Felipe Massa 15
Juan Pablo Montoya 13
Rubens Barrichello 12
Jenson Button 7
Mika Häkkinen 5
Ralf Schumacher 5
Sebastian Vettel 5
David Coulthard 4
Giancarlo Fisichella 4
Jarno Trulli 4
Nick Heidfeld 1
Heikki Kovalainen 1
Robert Kubica 1
Mark Webber 1
Fastest lap taking drivers 2000-2009
Fastest lap is an unusual thing. Often, it can display important information about the style and approach of a top racing driver. However, it is also something which will frequently be won out of absolutely nowhere by a midfield runner. Michael Schumacher was a master of the fast race lap, this record being the first of the many marks he went on to beat in his monumental career. However, he is run very close by Kimi Räikkönen. The Finn represents both sides of this equation. Twice in the past decade, Räikkönen took 10 fastest laps in a single season, but although once was in 2005, when he battled Fernando Alonso for the title, the other was in 2008, where he won only two races and ended up as being Felipe Massa's back-up man.
Michael Schumacher 37
Kimi Räikkönen 35
Rubens Barrichello 17
Fernando Alonso 13
Juan Pablo Montoya 13
Mika Häkkinen 12
Felipe Massa 12
David Coulthard 7
Ralf Schumacher 6
Lewis Hamilton 3
Sebastian Vettel 2
Mark Webber 3
Jenson Button 2
Nick Heidfeld 2
Heikki Kovalainen 2
Nico Rosberg 2
Pedro de la Rosa 1
Giancarlo Fisichella 1
Timo Glock 1
Adrian Sutil 1
Jarno Trulli 1
Top ten World Championship points scorers, 2000-2009
Again, no-one can catch Michael Schumacher. However, Alonso and Räikkönen both beat Rubens Barrichello, who raced in a full season more than the Finn and two more than the Spaniard. Everybody else are, relatively speaking nowhere. Particularly notable by their absence are the two other drivers to have entered every Grand Prix of the noughties: Giancarlo Fisichella (12th) and Jarno Trulli (11th).
Michael Schumacher 799
Fernando Alonso 577
Kimi Räikkönen 573
Rubens Barrichello 530
Jenson Button 327
Felipe Massa 320
David Coulthard 314
Juan Pablo Montoya 309
Ralf Schumacher 267
Lewis Hamilton 256
Top ten Grand Prix starting drivers, 2000-2009
Time was when 172 races would be beyond respectable as a Formula 1 career. For the top three drivers here, however, 200 starts is now a distant memory. Rubens Barrichello, who has been a fixture in the sport since 1993, is due to pass 300 next season with Williams. (Number of Grand Prix entries in brackets, years in italics)
Rubens Barrichello 172 (174) 2000-2009
Giancarlo Fisichella 172 (174) 2000-2009
Jarno Trulli 172 (174) 2000-2009
Jenson Button 170 (172) 2000-2009
Nick Heidfeld 168 (171) 2000-2009
David Coulthard 156 (157) 2000-2008
Kimi Räikkönen 156 (157) 2001-2009
Fernando Alonso 139 (140) 2001, 2003-2009
Mark Webber 138 (140) 2002-2009
Ralf Schumacher 131 (133) 2000-2007
Grand Prix starting drivers' nationalities 2000-2009
You may be, as I was, surprised to learn that the most abundant nationality was not German.
Brazil 10
(Barrichello, Bernoldi, Burti, da Matta, Diniz, Marques, Massa, Piquet, Pizzonia, Zonta)
Germany 9
(Frentzen, Glock, Heidfeld, Rosberg, M. Schumacher, R. Schumacher, Sutil, Vettel, Winkelhock)
United Kingdom 8
(Button, Coulthard, Davidson, Hamilton, Herbert, Irvine, McNish, Wilson)
Italy 6
(Badoer, Bruni, Fisichella, Luizzi, Pantano, Trulli)
France 5
(Alesi, Bourdais, Grosjean, Montagny, Panis)
Japan 5
(Ide, Kobayashi, Nakajima, Sato, Yamamoto)
Finland 4
(Häkkinen, Kovalainen, Räikkönen, Salo)
Spain 4
(Alguersuari, Alonso, de la Rosa, Gené)
Austria 3
(Friesacher, Klien, Wurz)
Netherlands 3
(Albers, Doornbos, Verstappen)
Argentina 1
(Mazzacane)
Australia 1
(Webber)
Canada 1
(Villeneuve)
Colombia 1
(Montoya)
Czech Republic 1
(Enge)
Denmark 1
(Kiesa)
Hungary 1
(Baumgartner)
India 1
(Karthikeyan)
Ireland 1
(Firman)
Malaysia 1
(Yoong)
Poland 1
(Kubica)
Portugal 1
(Monteiro)
Switzerland 1
(Buemi)
United States 1
(Speed)
Grand Prix winning Constructors 2000-2009
The noughties are when Ferrari finally lived up to their potential as the sport's oldest and most famous team. Not even lean years in 2005 and 2009 could stop them beating their nearest rival by more than double.
Ferrari 85
McLaren 38
Renault 20
Williams 13
Brawn 8
Red Bull 6
BMW 1
Honda 1
Jordan 1
Toro Rosso 1
Grand Prix winning engines 2000-2009
Again, Ferrari come out on top, the additional non-works team victory coming for Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso at Monza in 2008. Mercedes are showing strong signs of their increasing dominance of the sport towards the end of the decade. The most noticable absence is Toyota, although Honda will also be taking some pain from a solitary success for all their investment and Formula 1 experience. They'll be back one day.
Ferrari 86
Mercedes-Benz 46
Renault 26
BMW 14
Ford 1
Honda 1
Grand Prix winning tyres 2000-2009
Bridgestone started and ended the decade as the sole supplier of rubber for the field, vanquishing Michelin (2001-2006) along the way. However, in both 2005 and 2006, the French company blew the doors off of their rivals. Had they stayed, it could have been a much closer picture. With Bridgestone pulling out of the sport at the end of next year, the next decade will have a very different look.
Bridgestone 131
Michelin 43
And finally, just for a bit of speculative* fun:
The noughties Formula 1 Super Championship top 20
Drivers are ranked by their points total divided by the number of seasons in which they competed, to give an average. This figure was rounded up or down to the nearest point, so as to be inkeeping with the appearance of a regular Formula 1 standings table. And you'll never guess who the winner is...
1. Michael Schumacher 114 points
2. Lewis Hamilton 85
3. Fernando Alonso 72
4. Kimi Räikkönen 64
5. Mika Häkkinen 63
6. Rubens Barrichello 61
7. Juan Pablo Montoya 51
8. Felipe Massa 46
9. Sebastian Vettel 42
10. Heikki Kovalainen 35
11. David Coulthard 35
12. Robert Kubica 34
13. Ralf Schumacher 33
14. Jenson Button 33
15. Jarno Trulli 24
16. Giancarlo Fisichella 23
17. Nick Heidfeld 22
18. Mark Webber 21
19. Nico Rosberg 19
20. Timo Glock 17
* this does have one fundamental flaw, i.e. the amount of points on offer at each race went up from 26 to 39 from 2003 onwards. This gives drivers who did the majority of their scoring after that point a slight advantage over early bird rivals. However, despite throwing up a number of anomalies - Heikki Kovalainen beating both David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher being perhaps the most obvious - it still gives a broadly accurate flavour of what went down on the track this past ten years.
Perhaps the real issue is the name: "the noughties", being the best description of our current era, is still fairly lumpen. I daren't think what the next decade will come to be called, though I fear "The Teenies" is imminent as a widely acknowledged term in the English language.
However twee or ridiculous the nomenclature, though, I'm still a big fan of the decade. They are fabulously useful for the general observations of social progress, of developments, and sometimes, of regressions. Over the next few days, +1 Lap will be looking at what the previous ten years has done for, and what it will be remembered for, in the Formula 1 World Championship. We will start today with the collated raw statistics from the period, before hopefully getting a little more loquacious later this week with a look at my choices of the top ten drivers and top ten races, as well as some broader trends. But hey, enough of my yakking. What d'ya say... let's boogie.
F1 2000-2009
The FIA Formula One World Championship in the last decade was contested on 24 circuits in 20 countries. It was comprised of 174 Grands Prix. 71 drivers competed for the ten available world titles, with five men winning the crown and an additional 12 winning Grands Prix. 48 of the 71 drivers scored championship points. In the Constructors' Cup, 22 teams competed for the ten titles. Ferrari dominated with seven championship wins, Renault (twice) and Brawn GP taking the remainder.
Formula 1 World Champions 2000-2009
It was Schumacher's decade. Before 2000, five represented the high watermark in World Championship titles. Afterwards, it has become the record for most consecutive successes.
Michael Schumacher 5 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 & 2004)
Fernando Alonso 2 (2005 & 2006)
Jenson Button 1 (2009)
Lewis Hamilton 1 (2008)
Kimi Räikkönen 1 (2007)
Grand Prix winning drivers 2000-2009
In spite of his retirement at the end of 2006, no-one could get near Michael Schumacher's record in the past ten seasons. Indeed, his 56 wins (out of a total of 91) represent five more than the next-highest career total in the all-time list.
Michael Schumacher 56
Fernando Alonso 21
Kimi Räikkönen 18
Rubens Barrichello 11
Lewis Hamilton 11
Felipe Massa 11
Jenson Button 7
David Coulthard 7
Juan Pablo Montoya 7
Mika Häkkinen 6
Ralf Schumacher 6
Sebastian Vettel 5
Giancarlo Fisichella 3
Mark Webber 2
Heikki Kovalainen 1
Robert Kubica 1
Jarno Trulli 1
Grand Prix winning drivers' nationalities 2000-2009
Unsurprisingly enough, Germany lead the way on the back of Michael Schumacher's domination. However, two other countries provided three different winners. Brazil is the most successful country to have not produced a Formula 1 world champion in the past decade.
Germany 67 (3 drivers @ 22.33 wins apiece)
Finland 25 (3 drivers @ 8.33)
United Kingdom 25 (3 drivers @ 8.33)
Brazil 22 (2 drivers @ 11.00)
Spain 21 (1 driver @ 21.00)
Colombia 7 (1 driver @ 7.00)
Italy 4 (2 drivers @ 2.00)
Australia 2 (1 driver @ 2.00)
Poland 1 (1 driver @ 1.00)
Pole position winning drivers 2000-2009
Although he was never the most natural qualifier - Schumacher did not take a single Formula 1 pole until the race after the death of Ayrton Senna - in the best car he was completely devastating. Indeed, in the end his sheer longevity saw him overhaul Senna's record number of poles in his last Grand Prix season. The heir to his crown would appear to be Lewis Hamilton, who racked up the third-highest total in many fewer races than any of his rivals.
Michael Schumacher 45
Fernando Alonso 18
Lewis Hamilton 17
Kimi Räikkönen 16
Felipe Massa 15
Juan Pablo Montoya 13
Rubens Barrichello 12
Jenson Button 7
Mika Häkkinen 5
Ralf Schumacher 5
Sebastian Vettel 5
David Coulthard 4
Giancarlo Fisichella 4
Jarno Trulli 4
Nick Heidfeld 1
Heikki Kovalainen 1
Robert Kubica 1
Mark Webber 1
Fastest lap taking drivers 2000-2009
Fastest lap is an unusual thing. Often, it can display important information about the style and approach of a top racing driver. However, it is also something which will frequently be won out of absolutely nowhere by a midfield runner. Michael Schumacher was a master of the fast race lap, this record being the first of the many marks he went on to beat in his monumental career. However, he is run very close by Kimi Räikkönen. The Finn represents both sides of this equation. Twice in the past decade, Räikkönen took 10 fastest laps in a single season, but although once was in 2005, when he battled Fernando Alonso for the title, the other was in 2008, where he won only two races and ended up as being Felipe Massa's back-up man.
Michael Schumacher 37
Kimi Räikkönen 35
Rubens Barrichello 17
Fernando Alonso 13
Juan Pablo Montoya 13
Mika Häkkinen 12
Felipe Massa 12
David Coulthard 7
Ralf Schumacher 6
Lewis Hamilton 3
Sebastian Vettel 2
Mark Webber 3
Jenson Button 2
Nick Heidfeld 2
Heikki Kovalainen 2
Nico Rosberg 2
Pedro de la Rosa 1
Giancarlo Fisichella 1
Timo Glock 1
Adrian Sutil 1
Jarno Trulli 1
Top ten World Championship points scorers, 2000-2009
Again, no-one can catch Michael Schumacher. However, Alonso and Räikkönen both beat Rubens Barrichello, who raced in a full season more than the Finn and two more than the Spaniard. Everybody else are, relatively speaking nowhere. Particularly notable by their absence are the two other drivers to have entered every Grand Prix of the noughties: Giancarlo Fisichella (12th) and Jarno Trulli (11th).
Michael Schumacher 799
Fernando Alonso 577
Kimi Räikkönen 573
Rubens Barrichello 530
Jenson Button 327
Felipe Massa 320
David Coulthard 314
Juan Pablo Montoya 309
Ralf Schumacher 267
Lewis Hamilton 256
Top ten Grand Prix starting drivers, 2000-2009
Time was when 172 races would be beyond respectable as a Formula 1 career. For the top three drivers here, however, 200 starts is now a distant memory. Rubens Barrichello, who has been a fixture in the sport since 1993, is due to pass 300 next season with Williams. (Number of Grand Prix entries in brackets, years in italics)
Rubens Barrichello 172 (174) 2000-2009
Giancarlo Fisichella 172 (174) 2000-2009
Jarno Trulli 172 (174) 2000-2009
Jenson Button 170 (172) 2000-2009
Nick Heidfeld 168 (171) 2000-2009
David Coulthard 156 (157) 2000-2008
Kimi Räikkönen 156 (157) 2001-2009
Fernando Alonso 139 (140) 2001, 2003-2009
Mark Webber 138 (140) 2002-2009
Ralf Schumacher 131 (133) 2000-2007
Grand Prix starting drivers' nationalities 2000-2009
You may be, as I was, surprised to learn that the most abundant nationality was not German.
Brazil 10
(Barrichello, Bernoldi, Burti, da Matta, Diniz, Marques, Massa, Piquet, Pizzonia, Zonta)
Germany 9
(Frentzen, Glock, Heidfeld, Rosberg, M. Schumacher, R. Schumacher, Sutil, Vettel, Winkelhock)
United Kingdom 8
(Button, Coulthard, Davidson, Hamilton, Herbert, Irvine, McNish, Wilson)
Italy 6
(Badoer, Bruni, Fisichella, Luizzi, Pantano, Trulli)
France 5
(Alesi, Bourdais, Grosjean, Montagny, Panis)
Japan 5
(Ide, Kobayashi, Nakajima, Sato, Yamamoto)
Finland 4
(Häkkinen, Kovalainen, Räikkönen, Salo)
Spain 4
(Alguersuari, Alonso, de la Rosa, Gené)
Austria 3
(Friesacher, Klien, Wurz)
Netherlands 3
(Albers, Doornbos, Verstappen)
Argentina 1
(Mazzacane)
Australia 1
(Webber)
Canada 1
(Villeneuve)
Colombia 1
(Montoya)
Czech Republic 1
(Enge)
Denmark 1
(Kiesa)
Hungary 1
(Baumgartner)
India 1
(Karthikeyan)
Ireland 1
(Firman)
Malaysia 1
(Yoong)
Poland 1
(Kubica)
Portugal 1
(Monteiro)
Switzerland 1
(Buemi)
United States 1
(Speed)
Grand Prix winning Constructors 2000-2009
The noughties are when Ferrari finally lived up to their potential as the sport's oldest and most famous team. Not even lean years in 2005 and 2009 could stop them beating their nearest rival by more than double.
Ferrari 85
McLaren 38
Renault 20
Williams 13
Brawn 8
Red Bull 6
BMW 1
Honda 1
Jordan 1
Toro Rosso 1
Grand Prix winning engines 2000-2009
Again, Ferrari come out on top, the additional non-works team victory coming for Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso at Monza in 2008. Mercedes are showing strong signs of their increasing dominance of the sport towards the end of the decade. The most noticable absence is Toyota, although Honda will also be taking some pain from a solitary success for all their investment and Formula 1 experience. They'll be back one day.
Ferrari 86
Mercedes-Benz 46
Renault 26
BMW 14
Ford 1
Honda 1
Grand Prix winning tyres 2000-2009
Bridgestone started and ended the decade as the sole supplier of rubber for the field, vanquishing Michelin (2001-2006) along the way. However, in both 2005 and 2006, the French company blew the doors off of their rivals. Had they stayed, it could have been a much closer picture. With Bridgestone pulling out of the sport at the end of next year, the next decade will have a very different look.
Bridgestone 131
Michelin 43
And finally, just for a bit of speculative* fun:
The noughties Formula 1 Super Championship top 20
Drivers are ranked by their points total divided by the number of seasons in which they competed, to give an average. This figure was rounded up or down to the nearest point, so as to be inkeeping with the appearance of a regular Formula 1 standings table. And you'll never guess who the winner is...
1. Michael Schumacher 114 points
2. Lewis Hamilton 85
3. Fernando Alonso 72
4. Kimi Räikkönen 64
5. Mika Häkkinen 63
6. Rubens Barrichello 61
7. Juan Pablo Montoya 51
8. Felipe Massa 46
9. Sebastian Vettel 42
10. Heikki Kovalainen 35
11. David Coulthard 35
12. Robert Kubica 34
13. Ralf Schumacher 33
14. Jenson Button 33
15. Jarno Trulli 24
16. Giancarlo Fisichella 23
17. Nick Heidfeld 22
18. Mark Webber 21
19. Nico Rosberg 19
20. Timo Glock 17
* this does have one fundamental flaw, i.e. the amount of points on offer at each race went up from 26 to 39 from 2003 onwards. This gives drivers who did the majority of their scoring after that point a slight advantage over early bird rivals. However, despite throwing up a number of anomalies - Heikki Kovalainen beating both David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher being perhaps the most obvious - it still gives a broadly accurate flavour of what went down on the track this past ten years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)